External DAB aerial on OSS roof

depronman

A2OC Donor
I am wanting to fit a 'glass mount' DAB aerial and my prefered option is to mount it in the centre of the panel of glass that is immediately to the back of the windscreen i.e. the section that is fixed.
There is a small internal mount that would ideally fit near the OSS motor, my question - is the roof glass available in this area ?
I have removed the lighting panel and can see the OSS motor and the roof on top of the motor, however I can't establish if this is the inside of the glass or not - can anyone confirm please.

Cheers,
Paul
 
Me too. I spent a couple of hours of an evening a week or two back looking for an answer for this very question. No joy.

Paul - not quite sure what you mean by "is the roof glass available in this area?"
 
I’d be interested in this too. What DAB head unit do you have Paul?

Ian

Hi,
here is the link to the DAB+ adaptor that I bought In Car DAB Digital Radio Adapter DAB with Bluetooth Handsfee FM Transmitter New

It arrived within 2 weeks direct from China, it was chosen as much as anything on size as I wanted to locate it in the ash tray of the A2
The cubby hole was not an option as I fitted a double din dash, but look out for a write up from another member that I have designed and made a custom draw in the cubby hole tray to suit his DAB+ unit, as you pull out the draw the DAB unit is hinged upwards to about 15 Deg to aid viewing the screen.

I was rather disappointed in the reception of the DAB+ unit, on the bench it was very good with the supplied 'stick on inside of glass aerial', however on the move it is near useless. I have since learned that all of the stick on glass aerials result in poor reception, the none amplified versions be useless (and this was what came with my DAB+ unit)
Through numerous forums I was directed to dabonwheels website, they have a 45 day money back guarantee on all their aerials and their own 6 start rating system, the aerial I have chosen had a 5 out of 6 star rating Kinetic DEGAT4002 + 5m cable for £35 delivered, not cheap but highly rated. It is a glass mounted aerial i.e. the aerial antenna sticks on the outside of the glass and there is a 'pickup' that mounts on the inside of the glass directly under the antenna. This is the reason why I am asking the question about the OSS glass front panel. My intention is to mount the aerial antenna in the front section of the glass roof (the fixed panel) in the centre, and have the aerial pickup under the antenna located in the area where the OSS motor lives

Cheers,
Paul
 
Me too. I spent a couple of hours of an evening a week or two back looking for an answer for this very question. No joy.

Paul - not quite sure what you mean by "is the roof glass available in this area?"

Hopefully the following clarifies -
Through numerous forums I was directed to dabonwheels website, they have a 45 day money back guarantee on all their aerials and their own 6 start rating system, the aerial I have chosen had a 5 out of 6 star rating Kinetic DEGAT4002 + 5m cable for £35 delivered, not cheap but highly rated.
It is a glass mounted aerial i.e. the aerial antenna sticks on the outside of the glass and there is a 'pickup' that mounts on the inside of the glass directly under the antenna.
This is the reason why I am asking the question about the OSS glass front panel. My intention is to mount the aerial antenna in the front section of the glass roof (the fixed panel) in the centre, and have the aerial pickup under the antenna located in the area where the OSS motor lives

Cheers,
Paul
 
Hi,

I can't check the car at the moment but I have a couple of pics of the front and back fixed panel. Looking at the front picture it looks like there is a metal panel under the front glass, where the motor also attaches to. The rear panel looks like it has some access to the under side of the glass and that's where I believe the OEM "shark's fin" antenna would be fitted. I will be able to check for sure later in the week but I have attached the pictures for reference.

regards

Andrew

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Hi,

I can't check the car at the moment but I have a couple of pics of the front and back fixed panel. Looking at the front picture it looks like there is a metal panel under the front glass, where the motor also attaches to. The rear panel looks like it has some access to the under side of the glass and that's where I believe the OEM "shark's fin" antenna would be fitted. I will be able to check for sure later in the week but I have attached the pictures for reference.

regards

Andrew

View attachment 36977View attachment 36978
Thanks Andrew
difficult to see from the pictures, if your A2 as the head lining removed as in the pictures, could I trouble you to establish if there is an area near the OSS motor where the glass is available. If these is nothing there can you establish a suitable place at the rear. It is obviously much easier to locate a suitable mounting position with no head lining in the way

Very much appreciated

Cheers,
Paul
 
Any consideration to fitting a sharkfin / stub through the roof itself... hole and all?

The big concern for me with magnetic glass mount is the size and the fact that it appears that it could be easily / casually removed
 
It isn't possible to drill a hole through any of the glass panels (the glass will shatter, no matter what you do because it's tempered), so on OSS cars, options are pretty limited.

Even a non-mechanical means of cutting like a water jet can't touch it:

 
Any consideration to fitting a sharkfin / stub through the roof itself... hole and all?

The big concern for me with magnetic glass mount is the size and the fact that it appears that it could be easily / casually removed

It's not a mag mount that I bought
It is stuck on the outer glass with a pickup stuck on the opposite side of the glass - no holes required
 
Hi,

right, unfortunately I think I have some bad news.
I had a look around the roof last night and took some close up pictures. The front and rear fixed panels have the same construction. On the underside of the glass is a plate that incorporates a number of captive threaded studs. These fix the panel in place. The plate also has a rubber coating in a number of area. As far as I can see, the "plate" covers the entire under side surface of the glass panel that can be seen from inside the car.

I wasn't entirely sure what the plate was made of, its surface suggest it could be plastic. However, to confirm, I tried a magnet this morning. Unfortunately it is magnetic which means its probably steel. This makes sense as it has to be strong and rigid enough to fix the glass panel in place and it appears also to form part of the open sky frame structure. The plate which is part of the front glass is responsible entirely for holding the drive motor in position.

This is bad news for transmission between an aerial mounted on the top surface and a pickup on the underside.

Given that cars with the telephone system have a roof mounted aerial, I checked the parts catalog. The fixed panels are not available separately as replacements, only with the complete frame. There is mention that the OSS is different for models with telephone, although it suggests for replacement the stock OSS is modified with additional parts.

regards

Andrew

The first picture is the rear panel and the rest are of the front.

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I have DVB-T fitted to my A2. I also live in a (relatively) poor reception area on the North Wales coast. So this was my planned solution to improve the signal. Externally on the B-pillar there are two black aluminium covers. If they are removed you will find that there is a reasonable amount of space underneath. I was going to design two DVB-T pivoting aerials that could be swung upwards on either side of the car. When not in use (or when using a car-wash) , they could be swung downwards. Now I would have also re-designed the B-pillar cover, making it hinged. Obviously there would have to be an outward bulge to the new cover. I would have to have investigated the end result to ascertain the visual impact of the finished design. Anything detrimental and I would have just reverted to the original B-pillar design. I simply love a challenge!

David
 
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I have DBTV fitted to my A2. I also live in a (relatively) poor reception area on the North Wales coast. So this was my planned solution to improve the signal. Externally on the B-pillar there are two black aluminium covers. If they are removed you will find that there is a reasonable amount of space underneath. I was going to design two DBTV pivoting aerials that could be swung upwards on either side of the car. When not in use (or when using a car-wash) , they could be swung downwards. Now I would have also re-designed the B-pillar cover, making it hinged. Obviously there would have to be an outward bulge to the new cover. I would have to have investigated the end result to ascertain the visual impact of the finished design. Anything detrimental and I would have just reverted to the original B-pillar design. I simply love a challenge!

David
nice idea, will investigate this further
Cheers,
Paul
 
Ian,
Yes it would, but I'm not sure it would look right, plus it is nearer to the little toe rags that like to break bits off cars, middle of a highish roof is more out of there reach as a bit of opportune vandalism
 
Just been out to look at the gap twixt top of tailgate glass and the rearmost OSS glass panel. Sheesh. Those Audi boys weren't lacking in testicular diameter when they worked out the shut line tolerances on these cars, were they? It's impressively tight and the geometry is well controlled.

I had pondered the possibility that a 3D printed 'pedestal' of sorts could be used to mount a bee sting aerial on the rear OSS glass, with the trailing edge of it hooked over the back edge of the glass to hide the aerial wires. Not A Hope.

I think @Bargepower 's suggestion of something on the tailgate glass shows most promise, especially if the aerial cable could be fed through the tailgate wiring gaiter. It's a real shame that there doesn't appear to be an easy way of fitting an amplified combo DAB/FM/AM aerial to the A2 though.
 
Just been out to look at the gap twixt top of tailgate glass and the rearmost OSS glass panel. Sheesh. Those Audi boys weren't lacking in testicular diameter when they worked out the shut line tolerances on these cars, were they? It's impressively tight and the geometry is well controlled.

I had pondered the possibility that a 3D printed 'pedestal' of sorts could be used to mount a bee sting aerial on the rear OSS glass, with the trailing edge of it hooked over the back edge of the glass to hide the aerial wires. Not A Hope.

I think @Bargepower 's suggestion of something on the tailgate glass shows most promise, especially if the aerial cable could be fed through the tailgate wiring gaiter. It's a real shame that there doesn't appear to be an easy way of fitting an amplified combo DAB/FM/AM aerial to the A2 though.

TFG - you are so right, I had also looked into the shark fin type aerial on the A2, came to the conclusion that getting the cables through a hole in the glass was a none starter, and that there was 'not a chance' of the cables fitting neatly in the panel gap as it is simply too small - great minds and all that

The search goes on
Cheers,
 
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